This morning news broke that Henrik Sedin would be missing the final two games on the schedule for the Vancouver Canucks prior to the Olympic break. His status for the actual Sochi games themselves was unclear, but coach John Tortorella went on the record saying that he would like to see him pass on the opportunity to represent his country, in an attempt to prepare himself for a stretch run where his NHL team will desperately need his services.

The coach's opinion wasn't an original one by any means, as fans of the team have been fairly vocal in their pleas for him to be shut down for the forseeable future. Especially her his meek showing in Boston on Tuesday, where he showed that he couldn't take the lightest of bodychecks (stopping short and literally protecting his ribs with an outstretched arm), and was a shell of his formerly great self.

From a Tre Kronor perspective, I'm not sure that this is necessarily the worst of news. Obviously a healthy Henrik Sedin would've been a big part of their team, but I figure that the team's braintrust had already resigned themselves to the fact that they weren't getting that this year. Unless he took some sort of magical elixir that healed him of his rib and finger issues, he probably wouldn't have provided much more than moral support to them.

They're in Group C with the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Latvia, and I figure that they're still the favourite out of those 4 teams even without his services. He'll be replaced on the team by Mikael Backlund, who at this point (taking the ailments into account) is probably a better option.

He plays in Calgary, and may not necessarily have eye-popping counting stats, but he's a darn good hockey player. When asked for his thoughts on the matter, Mikael Samuelsson put his drink down in a local Grand Rapids bar, and told them that "they can go [expletive] themselves. That's what I really think."

As for the Canucks, their first game coming out of the break will be on February 26th against the Blues, which kickstarts a mini 3-game homestand. It's impossible to say with any certainty just how much the break will help him in returning to the form we've all come to expect from him, but it definitely won't hurt. This is a team that needs anything it can get at this point, having scored just 19 goals as a team in the 10 games since Marty Hanzal went to town on their captain.

While it must suck for Henrik Sedin to forfeit the chance to compete against the world's best for his motherland, this finally marks some good injury news for the team that's paying him $6.1 million this year to play hockey.

Dimitri Filipovic writes about hockey on the internet. If you'd like to get in touch with him you can do so on Twitter @DimFilipovic or via email at dimitri.filipovic@gmail.com.

Sad news for him and frankly for a dismal season like this it likely would have been one of the few highlights. Probably shouldn't have come back when he did though nothing to say that it would have forestalled this much-needed break. I suppose Daniel will still be going? It'll be interesting to see how he does with a different Swedish line mate and if he'll respond to a more conducive center than what the Canucks have to offer at this point.

Funny side story: Gillis was on the radio with Blake Price and Sekeres and he had no answer if Hank was going to play in the Olympics or not, then 1 minute after the interview, the report comes out that he isn't playing.

I assume Gilly knew already, but just found it funny that he took his stance of not knowing then a minute later, there it was, leaked from some Swedish website.

This is the right decision. I salute the pull to play for your country in such a prestigious event, but not at the price of making a bad injury worse. Also, Sweden has enough good players, so a healthy substitute is still a better call than an injured H. Sedin.